Wurzburg- through the ages

We had a new couple join our team.  They arrived on Tuesday to replace the Dye's who have gone home.  The Swenson's are from Salt Lake City.  He is an orthopedic surgeon and previously served a medical mission in Brazil and so speaks fluent Portuguese.  We decided to accompany them to Wurzburg which seemed like a good starting point for the newcomers.
It was to be an eventful day.  We started out at about 9 a.m. Saturday morning heading south on a planned trip of about an hour.  Well, the hour translated into 3 and a half by the time we got there.  We were never able to determine what kept slowing our progress.  Every five or ten kilometers there was some unexplained slowdown in the traffic.  The road we were on is typically slow given all the construction sites along the way but on this occasion our trip was notably delayed.  This was to be the beginning of a memorable trip for them and us as well.  After a quick visit to a church on route to the palace, the Swenson's decided to take in a tour of the palace in German and we made our way downtown, as we had already been through the tour on a previous visit.  We had lunch walked around the market and took some of the sites we remembered from our first visit.  When they were done their tour, we decided to hike up to the fortress overlooking Wurzburg.
After a twenty-five minute climb, we discovered that the area was being readied for a concert and we would have to walk around the fortress to the other side to gain access.  We started around and quickly realized that this was going to take far more time than what we had available, particularly in that we needed to arrive in 15 minutes for the only English tour of the day.  I went back to the site and pleaded my cause with the security people; they relented and let us walk through the gate.
We took our tour.  It was well worth it and then we went through the museum on site which also provided a glimpse into historic Wurzburg and the Prince Bishops whose home this was.
The trip down was even more of an adventure.  We could not go back the same way so we proceeded down via a roadway that we thought was heading us in the right direction.  Well, it did but in a rather circuitous way.  An hour later, four weary tourists arrived back at the parking garage to enjoy the luxury of a soft seat and the trip back to Frankfurt.

Wurzburg indeed has much to offer.  It is another university town,  the home of Dirk Nowwitzki the MBA player and the seat of some of the most powerful Bishops of Europe.  A number of churches are located within easy walking distance of the old town.  Wurzburg was 90% destroyed in March of 1945 in the space of 17 minutes during the allied bombing of World War II.  The citizens have rebuilt every historic landmark of the city.  The cathedrals and churches are resplendent in that the typical degradation of age is not a factor given this relatively new construction.
Many time periods are represented in Wurzburg including the Celts who were the original inhabitants of the fortress site, then the Romans and later the Franconians.  The citizens of Wurzburg recognized the rich history of their city and have maximized efforts to resurrect the vestiges of their past to our benefit.